The University of Utah’s Office for Faculty recently started a new series called “Navigating H.B. 261. as Faculty.” It helps faculty and staff learn how the anti-DEI law may impact the way they perform their jobs.
The first session dealt with teaching and syllabi. It took place on Sept. 24. The next session is scheduled for Oct. 28 and will focus on research.
Anne Cook, director of the Martha Bradley Evans Center for Teaching Excellence, led the session. She answered questions from faculty concerned they can no longer teach equity, diversity and inclusion subjects.
“I think there’s still a lot of misunderstanding about the bill and about whether or not it impacts what can be taught in the classroom, and it doesn’t,” said Cook, who is also a professor of Educational Psychology. “It actually carves out protections for classroom instruction.”
H.B. 261 and Course Syllabi
While H.B. 261 does not prevent professors from teaching DEI or mentioning it in their syllabi, it does require them to release their syllabi to the public.
The new requirement aligns with the U’s internal policy 6-100, which requires course information to be released one week before the semester starts. However, Cook said there is ambiguity about where the syllabus information should be published.
The town hall’s goal was to clarify the publishing process before the start of the spring semester.
“In terms of policies around syllabi, nothing has changed. It’s just our strategy for helping faculty comply with PPM 6-100,” Cook said.
The Utah System of Higher Education guidelines on H.B. 261 state that universities cannot have policies that cause any individual to feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or other psychological distress solely because of the individual’s personal identity characteristics.”
Similarly, The Martha Bradley Evans Center for Teaching Excellence suggests that professors include a statement in the syllabus if some course material might conflict with a student’s “deeply held beliefs.“ However, Cook said that suggestion predates USHE’s guidelines.
“Some courses are going to teach really sensitive material, and it may not be sensitive with respect to issues around EDI, but it might be sensitive … to mental health issues or all kinds of issues,” she said.
Cook added that staff often direct students to campus resources if they find course material particularly upsetting or disturbing.
H.B. 261 and Student Resources
The anti-DEI law went into effect in July, and the U closed the LGBT Resource Center alongside the Women’s Resource Center and the Black Cultural Center in response to it. The university replaced the services with two new resource centers.
U President Taylor Randall previously told the Daily Utah Chronicle in a press conference that forming these two new resource centers made the U’s response to the bill more likely to be approved by the Utah Board of Higher Education.
If approved, the U looks to create a new, reorganized LGBT Resource Center and Black Cultural Center.
“Our plan is, we get this umbrella center approved, and then you will actually see, in relatively short order, a Black Cultural Center and LGBTQ Center that will come up underneath it,” Randall said at the press conference.
Cook said there has been extensive communication with faculty surrounding H.B. 261, but students also need to be informed about the law.
“I think it’s important for students to understand the implications of the law … that course instruction is protected in the law,” she said. “So when a faculty member talks about issues related to EDI, students need to know that that’s OK. And that’s protected within the law … it’s not like it just affects faculty, it affects the entire university community.”
